


Machines

by Trash



Category: Linkin Park
Genre: Infidelity, M/M, Marknix, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-20
Updated: 2014-01-20
Packaged: 2018-01-09 10:21:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1144825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trash/pseuds/Trash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His official role is videographer. Unofficially he is Dave’s groupie and nothing else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Machines

His official role is videographer. Unofficially he is Dave’s groupie and nothing else. Sure, he knows how to use a camera and Avid editing software, but it’s not anything the multitalented Mr. Shinoda couldn’t do. And some days he gets up and thinks, what the fuck am I doing?

It was Dave’s idea to break up the band. Nobody was happy about it, but Dave was so sure it was the right thing to do. Only later did they realise that Linkin Park, this band that had come out of nowhere, were their bassist’s new number one priority because they were destined for big things.

Probably Mark should have done what the other guys did and walk away and never look back. But it was already too late – Dave had already kissed him.

And so he couldn’t say no when Dave said, “Will you come with us when we play the show tonight?”

And he didn’t get mad when all he could do was hang around behind their shitty little hand-built set because there was nowhere else to go.

He becomes flavour of the month when he offers to let Chester couch surf with him for as long as he needs to. And he only offered because Dave asked. Post-cotial. Pillow talk, you know? “Our singer, he’s homeless.”

So it’s the three of them in the apartment. And Mark isn’t under the impression that Dave and Chester’s relationship is platonic. But neither of them never give themselves away, Mark just knows. And Dave doesn’t seem to feel the need to mention it. So neither does he.

He shares the bus with them which is awkward more often than not. It’s not that he doesn’t get along with the rest of the band – he does, pretty well actually – but he never knows how to justify his presence there. Every morning when Chester sings along to the radio in the cramped bathroom or whenever Mike is working with Joe or Rob in the back of the bus, whenever Brad strums a riff or he and Dave strike up a conversation about shitty machine heads.

Whenever they’re busy being talented and shiny Mark thinks about The Snax and how, well, they sucked.

He’s so happy he can call his mom and go, “Yeah we’re in London and as usual I’m just following these superstars around with my camera. Aren’t you proud I went to college and did medicine? Aren’t you so relieved my degree has gone to such good use?”

After the show Dave is too tired to do much else but eat whatever is left on the rider in the dressing room and head back to the bus. They lay there, the pair of them, cramped into Dave’s tiny bunk. Quiet breathing and too much body heat.

Mark wants to talk. But monosyllabilic answers are discourages, so he stops trying eventually and just murmurs quietly, “I whisper empty sounds in your ear and hope that you won’t let go. Take the pieces and build them skyward.”

“Mmm,” Dave smiles tiredly. “Biffy Clyro, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad we asked them to tour the UK with us.”

“Kind of wish we’d been given that chance. The Snax, I mean.”

Dave nods absently, doesn’t say anything.

So Mark says, “I think you should hire somebody else to film your stuff.”

Uninterested, “Why?”

“Because I just don’t…I can’t…”

Can’t stand by and watch you rise to great heights and make millions of bucks whilst the record company pay me less than ten percent of your income. Can’t stay here and watch Chester pine over you, Chester with his brilliant voice that, let’s face it, out shines mine tenfold. Can’t follow you anymore when you’d not notice if I were to leave.

But Dave, he’s asleep already. So Mark just keeps it to himself.

And follows him for another day.


End file.
